Duns Castle XC Race

Dhavala  2^nd lady,  28.16     (21^st overall)

Shyamala    7^th lady,   32.00   (48^th overall)

Bhauliya   11^th lady  34.54    (58^th overall)  

Amelia   14^th lady  37.06   (67^th  overall)

For full results see:        East Borders XC League

On Sunday 5^th December, three friends – Shyamala, Dhavala and Bhauliya – and I arrived at a school on the Duns Castle in the Scottish Borders to participate in the East Borders Cross Country League. The weather was cold but bright. We jogged over to the registration point, which was supposed to be amongst some school buildings. We tried to enter the school sports hall where it seemed most runners were heading. We assumed registration would take place inside the building but were met with a sign on the door that read “NO RUNNERS”. At a race? We laughed. We registered, instead, with a race official who was handing out numbers from a parked car nearby.

The starting point was behind a rugby pitch belonging to the school. Yells from young boys playing rugby drifted over on the chilly morning air. But Bhauliya and I had other matters on our mind – namely our new running shoes. I was worried that mine were too tight, while Bhauliya was concerned hers were on the big side. But it was too late to fret about shoe sizes and our attention turned to stretching and warming up. 

Anxious about a knee injury, I decided not to warm up too much in fear of aggravating it. But the waiting left me feeling cold even though I was wearing more clothing than most of the other runners. In fact, I was freezing! The temperature was definitely a good few degrees cooler than in London, from where I had travelled the previous evening.

As the start time neared, adrenaline kicked in and I began to feel the cold less as I huddled in to the back of the pack. Knee permitting, I intended to take the race easy. A friendly man beside me agreed he was jogging too. I hoped I wouldn’t be last!

We set off down a gentle hill at the edge of a field, which was part of the Duns Castle estate, which covered the landscape as far as could be viewed. Round the corner at the bottom of the field we shortly came to a water obstacle, which surprised me. I had only a split second to decide which bit I should jump across and which leg to land on. I delighted in landing one foot in deep mud. Someone had lost his shoe and as I approached he was groping in the peaty water for his missing Walsh. He eventually found it sticking out of the mud and soon sped past me again.

We climbed two fences into the next field and then ran past a gatehouse and into some woods. We then followed a path at the edge of the trees, which was soft underfoot. To our left was a slope down to the castle itself and behind it a loch. After a short uphill climb we dropped down again to the loch and skirted its shores before heading away from the castle. From there we entered another stretch of forest. For a time it was quiet and I ran alone until the track swung back in the direction we’d come from and we headed for home. After an incline through the trees someone overtook me, calling, “It can’t be far now, can it?” “Hope not,” I replied. My knee began to play up at this stage but I was sure I could make it to the finish – at least! We dodged through some animal pens and then I saw the wide-open space that led back to the start. I finished comfortably and had not pushed myself. Once I stopped running my knee seized up but the rest of me felt great.

Dhavala came second and Shyamala finished a couple of minutes after her. Bhauliya was a minute or so ahead of me. We enjoyed the race immensely. The course was varied and scenic and the wintry sun had softened the cold wind. And thankfully I was not even nearly last!

The atmosphere at the finish was relaxed and friendly and there was a shared feeling of satisfaction and exhilaration amongst all the runners. Afterwards, my friends and I compared the amount of mud on each other’s legs and talked about our shoes. Both Bhauliya’s and mine had performed well and we were satisfied that we had chosen the right size after all.

The race was great fun and I’d like to do another one (as it is a series of races and I had to enter them all), but it’s a long way from my home in London to the Scottish borders for a race…